Where to watch

The Street Fighter

Synopsis

If you've got to fight - fight dirty!

Terry is a tough mercenary and a master of martial arts. When an important business magnate dies, leaving billions to his daughter, the Mafia and Yakuza try to hire Terry to kidnap the daughter. When they refuse to meet his exorbitant price, then try to kill him to conceal their secret plans, he promptly offers his services to protect her. Much ultra-violent martial-arts fighting action, as expected, ensues. This also includes a subplot of a family's blood-feud with Terry over a disputed debt.

Genres

"Well, he ain't so much a good guy as he's just a bad motherfucker. I mean, he gets paid by people to fuck guys up."

not really a great martial arts film, but a terrific piece of exploitation, one that makes no apologies for its belief in violence as the only true power, completely impartial and amoral. the fights themselves aren't so much choreographed as broken down into their most visceral elements, a catalog of impacts. it frequently masks Chiba's skill, but he compensates for that with a completely maniacal charisma that's a far greater asset than his athletic ability, his every punch accompanied by that patented wild-eyed face-twisting hiss. witness his self-satisfied smirk as he sells a woman into sexual slavery or rips a guy's balls off. he truly loves his work.

both the yakuza film and martial arts film stripped to the purest essential of communication through blunt bodily harm. at one point sonny chiba punches some goon on the top of his head and as he does it the film cuts to an x-ray image of the head so we can see his skull crush in just before it cuts back to his face where he spurts blood out of his eyes and mouth.

Sonny Chiba acts like a straight up savage. His attitude reminds me of Toshirō Mifune in Seven Samurai. He gives zero fucks, and will do anything if the price is right. The opening sequence is pretty awesome, and there’s a lot of people in the film that look like characters you would later see in future arcade fighting video games. The plot is ALL OVER the place, and I still wonder why it was necessary to cast a sidekick for Sonny? Still, I loved the action in the rain, and I just can’t get enough Chiba.

Tell that bitch who sent you how sorry I am I can no longer be her friend.-Terry Tsurugi

Grindhouse badassery by way of Sonny Chiba in his international break out hit. It's also the first film to receive an X rating in the U.S. for violence. Now if you watch this remember it received an X rating in 1974 and would probably get by on an R rating today. It's also not wall to wall violence, but rather it received it's rating for a few key scenes that might involve things like eye gouging, ripping out of a throat and perhaps the castration of a rapist. You know, everyday stuff by today's standards.

Looking for something packed to the rafters with action? How about something so violent, it was the first film to receive an x rating for violence? Want all that all in one film that's so 70s that you can almost smell the Aqua Velva?The Street Fighter is a must watch for you.

Martial arts bad ass Sonny Chiba, is a fist for hire, that's double crossed by the Yakuza. What follows, is a symphony of violence, as he goes on a karate rampage to rescue an oil heiress.Bones are broken, faces are punched, genitals are mutilated, the drinks will flow and the blood will spill, and if Sonny Chiba wants to fight you'd better let em.

Why I did not watch this immediately after watching (and loving) True Romance is beyond me. The main appeal you are going to get from The Street Fighter really comes down to one thing: Sonny Chiba. Sonny Chiba either looking cool, or Sonny Chiba kicking ass. When that's happening, the thrill is high. Watch him beat the shit out of goons, ripping off chunks of flesh and causing blood to flow like water. Whenever anything else is going on other than Sonny doing his thing, you're just going to want the film to get back to the good stuff. Immediately I could not tell you what the plot exactly was, what the names…

Sonny Chiba is Takamura Tsurugi in The Street Fighter. Sonny Chiba is also Terry Sugury in The Street Fighter. This duality is thanks to the rough treatment foreign market exploitation flicks got when they’d hit American soil. This is the first in a trilogy of hard-hitting, violent, Japanese martial arts films starring the hard breathing, imposing as well as posing, Sonny Chiba. Like how the Lone Wolf and Cub films of the early-to-mid 70’s saw a rawer, violent, ridiculous exploitation remodel to the samurai film, Chiba’s Street Fighter is a gritty, bloody, stripped down, gutter take on the kung fu film. Consider this: Chiba rips off someone’s genitals. He also crushes someone’s skull with a top down punch, and we…

I don't need my protagonist to be likeable, but I also don't need them to be irredeemable pieces of trash. But I get it, Sonny Chiba is definitely a villain here. Call me old fashioned, but I need someone to root for in my martial arts movies. Also, I know there's always racism and misogyny in 70s movies, but this is just too much.

This is my first Sonny Chiba film, and my main thought?- this guy should be HUGE in the incel community!

Last thought- the ending violence is actually really well-done and effective.

Okay last last thought- this is a film that Tarantino loves... Kind of explaining the 3.5+ score.. gosh people are sheep

Unapologetically ultra-violent exploitation cinema that trades finesse for brutality - focusing more on the impact of each blow and the contorted, snarling face of Chiba as he joyfully punches the vomit out of a henchman's stomach or as he rips the testicles from a rapists groin. Not enjoying this is a sin.